by Anne, Melody
He smiled, and her heart stuttered. She had to look away from the man, so she began playing with the strap on her large bag that had her plans in it. She’d do just about anything to keep herself distracted from Noah.
“So are you ready for some fun adventures?” he asked.
His good humor made her want to relax and fall into him, so instead she felt her body stiffen. She was fighting this feeling every step of the way.
“I’m not up for an adventure. I want to get this job done,” she told him.
“I’ve come up with a new philosophy in life,” he said. She waited, but he was quiet.
“Fine. I’ll bite. What is it?” she said with an eye roll.
“Life doesn’t have to be all about work. I want to do this the right way or not do it at all. You’re either all in or not in at all,” he told her. There was such intensity in his eyes; she wondered if he was telling her she was about to get fired from this project, like she’d already attempted to do. Maybe the best thing she could do would be to walk away, but everything inside her rebelled at doing just that. She was a competitive person, and she didn’t easily walk away from anything. And now that she was truly in, she needed to finish.
Instead of just easily complying with the man, she narrowed her eyes and stiffened her spine. She wasn’t going to be a pushover. No way, no how.
“Let me know more of what you have in mind, and I’ll tell you if that’s acceptable or not,” she said.
He was quiet for several long moments before he smiled, his eyes sparkling. He knew a challenge when he saw one, and she was certainly challenging him right back. She wasn’t even 100 percent sure of what she wanted, but she knew she wasn’t ready to give up.
“What I have in mind about the project or about us?” he asked, his expression almost mocking.
“There absolutely, positively isn’t an us,” she said with a glare.
“I’m not going to even justify that response with an answer,” he said. He looked slightly ticked at her reply. Had she somehow offended him or hurt his feelings? That was impossible. Sure, they’d slept together a while ago, but that didn’t mean they were in a relationship.
He took a step toward her, and she nearly panicked. She absolutely couldn’t allow this man to touch her. She’d go insane in a heartbeat. She needed to stay strong and not let him see that he intimidated her or affected her, but she also couldn’t allow him to touch her. She was definitely in a quandary.
He stepped forward again, and she felt herself taking another step back. It was irritating her.
“What are you afraid of, Sarah?” he asked, his voice softer.
“Not you,” she said with a glare as she stopped and stood her ground. He was getting too many wins lately when it came to the two of them. “But we need to focus on the project at hand, not on what’s happened in the past between the two of us.”
“Man, do you know how to make your voice grow cold when you’re trying to get a point across,” he said with a chuckle. “Are you putting me in my place?” He didn’t seem as if she’d put him anywhere. She had a feeling the man wasn’t easily intimidated or controlled. A lot of guys she’d dated had been far too weak for her. She didn’t want to be a bully, but sometimes she came across that way. Her stubbornness made her too controlling sometimes. Maybe one of the things she liked about this man was the fact she couldn’t control him. That gave her a liberation she couldn’t explain.
He reached toward her, and she glared at him. He backed off before he’d touched her, and she was glad for that.
“We need to set some ground rules right here and now, Noah,” she told him.
His lips turned up into a brilliant smile. She didn’t like feeling as if she was getting laughed at, but she couldn’t call him out on every little thing. They’d never get through this day if she did.
“Hmm, I’ve never been good with rules. Isn’t there a saying about rules needing to be broken?”
“Rules are a good thing,” she countered. “We’re both working on this project, and I think we need some firm boundaries while we finish it.”
“Well, I’ve never been good with boundaries,” he said with a shrug. His smile was still firmly in place.
“Maybe I do need to quit,” she said with a sigh. “Maybe it’s impossible for us to work together.”
He reached out and touched her arm, making a shiver run through her. She didn’t pull away this time. “I’m sorry,” he said, sincerity ringing in his voice. “I can be an ass. I know it. But sometimes breaking molds in life can give us the biggest advantages.”
His voice had softened with an edge of huskiness that made her knees go weak. It was so strange the effect he had on her. If it was anyone else but him, she’d be embracing the relationship, taking it wherever it led. But he was dangerous to her sanity, and that was too scary for her to play with. It was worse than fire.
She pulled away from him, though it was hard to do. Then she looked in his eyes, keeping her expression serious. He was going to agree to her rules, or she was walking, even if it did set her way back in her career. At least her sanity was going to be okay, and that was more valuable than any job.
“Are you agreeing to listen to me or not?” she asked.
“We’ve been working together just fine up to this point, so I’ll listen,” he told her. There was a bit too much mischief in his eyes, and that worried her, but she decided to move forward in the conversation.
“Okay, then let’s go over the rules,” she said again.
He looked at her with humor, as if he was indulging her. She once again had to get over her irritation, or this conversation was never going to end.
“Okay then,” she said with a smile. “There’s to be no more flirting or innuendos. We are going to keep it professional. That means no touching and definitely no trying to have sex with me.” She took a deep breath, glad she’d gotten all of that out smoothly. She ignored the smile on his face. She knew she had to continue. He wasn’t saying a word.
“This is a working relationship, and we’re to keep it that way. Nothing but professionalism from here on out. I love that I’m on this project, and I love your trust in me and really love Joseph Anderson’s trust, so we’re going to stick to these rules, or there are going to be consequences,” she warned.
He still wasn’t saying anything as he looked at her as if he were a parent indulging a mischievous child. That got her back a little bit more straight. He was going to take her seriously if it was the last thing she accomplished in her entire lifetime. Several long moments passed as she grew more and more impatient.
“Do you have anything to say?” she asked.
“I have plenty to say,” he told her. The smile had never left his face. She didn’t trust it one bit.
“Well, what is it?” she huffed out.
He paused long enough to let her know he was in total control of this situation. She wasn’t prone to violence, but she was thinking of making an exception right about then!
“I’m going to give you a counter offer,” he said in a smooth, sexy voice that had her knees once again shaking. “I won’t do anything you don’t want to happen.”
He didn’t add anything else. There were no stipulations on his part, no response to anything she’d just said. He was closing the conversation in a few choice words that had her stomach clenching. He wasn’t a man to be intimidated, but she was feeling pretty damn intimidated herself right then. She might’ve hated him a bit for that. She wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of knowing how much he’d gotten to her, though.
“Well then, I guess we’re a hundred percent okay, because I don’t want anything but professionalism from you. Our working relationship can continue,” she told him in the haughtiest voice she could manage. His smile didn’t budge one bit, but she didn’t care. She’d made herself more than clear, and he’d said he wouldn’t break her rules unless she was willing to break them. She wasn’t worried she would. She was a strong woman who’d made
men’s knees shake before. This one man wasn’t going to bring her down, not one little bit.
“Now that we got the boring stuff out of the way, let’s get to work,” he told her. She ignored his snide little remark. It wasn’t boring stuff. It was electric stuff that had her heart racing and her body shaking. There was no need to admit that out loud.
“Let’s see the plans,” she told him instead.
He nodded and turned to head toward the cottage. She absolutely didn’t want to go inside there, but she didn’t really have much of a choice. She’d agreed to meet him there, and they’d come to terms with things, so she could suck it up.
They stepped inside the small cottage, and Sarah glanced around, memories of her time on this property flashing through her brain. It was mostly good memories that sent a little pang through her. But that was the past.
This was the present, and she needed to stay fully focused. If she didn’t, she feared she’d be consumed by Noah, and she wouldn’t even realize it was happening. And once she got caught in the eye of the storm that was all him, she feared she’d never find her way out.
CHAPTER NINE
Noah wiped his palms on his pants, shocked to realize they were sweating. He’d been in places where bullets zipped past him, nearly taking his life, and he hadn’t felt as nervous as he did while Sarah sat across from him. Especially when she was talking about what they could and couldn’t do together.
What was it about this particular girl? He wasn’t sure. They’d had such a short amount of time together, and she was fighting him every step of the way, so why in the world was he worried about what she thought of him? He’d left women’s beds before without a thought of them ever again. But not this girl, not this time.
There was something special about her, and spending more time in her presence only added to her appeal. Maybe this romance would end in a blaze of glory . . . or maybe it would lead to more. Only time was going to tell. He did know for sure that she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon—not with this massive project to be completed. Because of that, he had no doubt that their chemistry together was going to make them explode in the near future.
“This is everything I have so far. You’ve seen most of it, but we really do have to go to the site and work on things. Then we need to travel to other locations to make sure we get it right. We’ve got to get this right,” Noah said as he pushed the papers toward Sarah.
“How much have you changed from the beginning?” she asked.
“I’ve kept the locations the same but changed some of the ways the buildings line out. I’m still not liking it, though,” he told her.
“What aren’t you liking?” she asked.
“I can’t answer that. I don’t know; I just know it’s somehow not working, and I’m growing more frustrated by the minute. I create art,” he said. She raised a brow. “I want to design things that people talk about long after I’m dead. I can’t do that with something ordinary, so this project means a lot to me. It’s a huge one for you as well, and so we need to get it right.”
“I’ve seen things you’ve designed. You do have true talent, Noah. I’m actually pretty honored to be invited in as part of it all. I’m sure you could do it without me,” she said. The awe in her tone made his chest puff out the slightest bit.
“I like what I do, just as I know you love what you do. I think it shows in your work,” he said. “We just have to stop fighting each other so we can get it exactly right.”
“Maybe we need to quit thinking about it in terms of greatness and go back to the basics. Let’s go on a treasure hunt for the best buildings, take pictures of them, document the process, and show it at the grand opening. The whole process can be there for the world to see. Our pictures can hang on the walls. We can show people what buildings and places have inspired us.” The more she talked, the more animated she became. She was getting excited about the idea of traveling. If it took her looking at it like a treasure hunt, he certainly wasn’t going to complain.
“So you like to hunt for treasure?” he asked.
“Who doesn’t want to find treasure?” she responded. The guarded expression she’d been wearing since she’d arrived evaporated as she got into her idea of searching for gold—or her version of gold, that was.
He drank a long swallow of beer before he smiled. Maybe a treasure hunt would be the thing to bring them together. Maybe it would tear down the walls she’d so carefully erected against him, and maybe it would give him a chance to find out if they had a real connection or just mind-boggling sex that would eventually end.
“Ugh, sorry. I get an idea in my head, and then I lose all reasonable thought. But there’s so much art out there in the buildings that have already been created that I think we could truly be inspired. I don’t like feeling stuck, and I don’t want this project held up because of us,” she told him.
“First of all, there’s no need to apologize. Secondly, I love the idea of a treasure hunt. I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to do, but I love this idea,” he told her.
“Do you have any ideas on where to begin?” she asked.
There were so many places Noah wanted to go. But he knew each one had to be special. The first place had to draw her in so she’d want to continue this hunt, want to continue spending time with him. And he knew they really would be inspired. This was a win all the way around for both of them. For a moment he was at a loss. He wanted to keep her intrigued, keep her interested, and he couldn’t do that by taking her somewhere less than extraordinary.
“Let’s pull out a map and go from there,” he told her.
They did just that, and over the next few hours, they studied the map and the prints they’d drawn. But as they continued studying their designs and the map, they were both intrigued by a couple of places.
“I remember being in this place once. It’s a small country town, but there are buildings over a hundred years old that have been maintained. It might be the exact inspiration we’re looking for,” he suggested. “Let me think some more on it, but let’s be ready to go tomorrow. Sometimes we just need to take a leap.”
“Tomorrow won’t work for me. I’m teaching a class and can’t cancel. But we can go the day after.”
She stood up and began packing her bags, and he had the ridiculous urge to stop her. He wasn’t ready for their night to end. He never was when he spent time with her. But they’d discussed all they’d needed to today, and he wasn’t going to be able to stop her without breaking one of her ridiculous rules. This rule thing was going to end real quick, if he had anything to say about it.
“Okay, then we’ll get started in a day and a half,” he finally said when he couldn’t come up with a valid reason to delay their night.
“This is either going to be a lot of fun or a big waste of time,” she warned. He found it amusing she was now the one consoling him if they didn’t find what they were looking for.
“Looking for treasure is never a waste of time,” he countered. “We’ll find something; it just might not be what we’re expecting.” It might not be at all what he was looking for, but it might be exactly what he needed. Maybe Crew was getting too much in his head, because he was starting to think like a damn psychologist.
She gave him an unguarded smile that had his heart thumping. She really was one of those women who believed in magic even when she didn’t want to. She might try to fight that side of herself, but when her guard was down, she couldn’t help but dream. His new goal in life was to see that look of wonder and excitement in her expression every chance he could get. Whether Sarah liked it or not, she was in his life.
He had a feeling it was where she would stay. Their journey together might take them down some uncharted paths, but in the end they’d find themselves exactly where they were supposed to be.
And he had a feeling that X was going to mark the spot.
CHAPTER TEN
Sarah had always been a person to come to decisions quickly but then question herself
endlessly about what she’d decided upon. Sometimes she felt good about the choices she made, and at other times she’d kick herself. Living that way could be exhausting. Why couldn’t she be more carefree? Wouldn’t that make life so much easier? Probably. But it might also make it pretty boring as well.
She was also a person who wanted to see the entire picture before the art was finished. That was why this veterans project was so consuming. It wasn’t something that could be completed in a day. It was going to take a lot of time, and she had to allow herself to look at it like one big adventure that was to be taken in steps instead of a day-by-day thing where she had to get a certain amount done in a timely fashion.
But even if she gave herself a thousand lectures, she also knew she wasn’t going to lighten up. And she knew being with Noah Anderson for any length of time was going to alter how she was feeling as well. The man flustered her. She wasn’t used to that. She was used to being in control, and there was no way for her to achieve that with him. She couldn’t seem to concentrate anymore—even if he wasn’t there. He was constantly on her mind.
Her day had been long, and she felt weary as she strolled into a café. It was time to meet her friend for dinner. She was sure she’d forget all about Noah within seconds of being with Chloe. No one had ever been able to come between her and her best friends. If anyone had tried, they’d been quickly schooled on what true friendship meant.
“Hey, Chloe. Sorry I’m late,” Sarah said with a sheepish smile. She normally was on time for everything. If it weren’t for her head being in a fog right now, she’d have been early even.
“It’s okay. I don’t have anything else happening this evening. I’m free for us to catch up on gossip,” Chloe told her as she approached.
Chloe threw her arms around Sarah, and the two of them hugged. She wished relationships with men were as easy as they were with besties. Then she wouldn’t have all this indecisiveness running through her brain.
“You’ve been so busy lately; I feel as if you’ve forgotten all about me,” Chloe said with a pout as she pulled back.